Trooper Has Surgery To Replace Part Of Skull

A big step Wednesday in the recovery of a South Dakota trooper who was run over by a suspected drunk driver.

A surgeon has replaced the portion of Andrew Steen's skull that had been removed after he was hurt.

It's been exactly seven weeks since Steen suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was run over in the parking lot of a Sioux Falls strip mall. His doctor had to remove the portion of his skull to allow his brain to swell as he recovered.

Steen's road to recovery certainly hasn't been an easy one since that mid-October incident, but the surgery is weeks, perhaps even months, ahead of when his doctors first told family members it would be able to be done. That's a sign that Steen is progressing more quickly than they expected, despite the seriousness of his injury.

According to CaringBridge and Facebook pages being updated by family members, Steen has been awake and speaking, but has been having some memory problems as he recovers.